14 FLOWERS AND THE FLOWER GARDEN". 



and a satisfaction, rather than a loss and a disappointment. 

 With a sweet mild sheltered position, clear country air, 

 and a fine soil, we may attain almost any amount of 

 floricultural success ; but if our field of action be a small 

 wall-enclosed space, on which the smoke of some great 

 town beats pitilessly down, we must confine our horticul- 

 tural ambition to the few plants which can accommodate 

 themselves to such circumstances, and be very glad that 

 there are a few which can. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE TOOL-HOUSE AND ITS CONTENTS. 



HOWEVER true it may be that a bad workman finds fault 

 with his tools, it is no less so that a good workman wants 

 good tools ; and this is in no case much truer than in the 

 tiower garden. 



A good tool-house and potting-shed are essential 

 adjuncts to every garden. The tool-house should be 

 fitted up with shelves for stowing away mats, canvas, 

 netting, and things of that kind used at times only for 

 covering and shading. The walls should be covered 

 with supports, pegs, nails, and hooks, among which every 

 long and short handled tool, watering-pot, fumigator, 

 hammer, axe, and other tool should have its place, to 

 which it should be returned, cleaned, every time it is 

 used. The habit which many gardeners have of leaving 

 their tools about when they have done using them, is 

 extravagant and mischievous to a great degree. The 

 tool-house should also have shelves for boxes whetstones, 

 roses of watering-pots, and water-engines, tallies, pegs, 

 and all small things so likely to get mislaid or lost. 

 There should also be hanging boxes and other receptacles 

 for shreds, nails, cords, lines, and such like. The wheel- 

 barrow and water-engine should always go under shelter 

 when their work is done, and some old casks for the pre- 

 servation of any fertilizers that wet would injure, will be 



